[IxDA Discuss] Changes to Facebook (Perceived Privacy)

[Jared M. Spool]

At 08:06 PM 9/8/2006, Susan Farrell wrote:
>Maybe if FB had also offered the new features as goodies that users
>could opt in for, people could have tried them over time and given
>more constructive feedback.
>
>Opt-in and beta-testing would have left the users feeling in charge
>of the site in important ways. This is the real lesson here. Websites
>exist for their users, and they need to behave accordingly.

I wrote an article about this problem back in March of 2005:

Designing Embraceable Change
http://www.uie.com/articles/embraceable_change

I think we're going to see this problem more and more. As people become 
involved in the designs we create, they are going to show a very natural 
reluctance to change.

New technology takes the control of change away from the user. Whereas, in 
years past, the user controlled when a software upgrade happened, thereby 
giving them an opportunity to psychologically adapt to the change, now it's 
up to the supplier when the change happens.

We're seeing that users are adverse to sudden change and understanding how 
we're going to adapt to the change process. I'm betting, in the next five 
years, we see a lot of research around how to help users adapt to 
technology changes they don't control.

Jared


Jared M. Spool, Founding Principal, User Interface Engineering
510 Turnpike Street, Suite 102, North Andover, MA 01845
978 327-5561   jspool at uie.com  http://www.uie.com
Blog: http://www.uie.com/brainsparks